This course examines how human rights ideas and instruments have expanded globally in the last several decades and how they have impacted local human rights practices across the globe. The course examines different theoretical approaches to global human rights politics and empirical studies on the history of global human rights and its impact on local politics. It will feature practitioners of human rights as guest speakers and culminates in two video conference sessions with the United Nations headquarters, where we will discuss the past, present, and future of human rights politics in international society with experts on human rights at the UN. The course will cover a wide range of issues such as civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights, children’s rights, women’s rights, indigenous rights, genocide, retributive justice, treaty compliance, state sovereignty, transnational social movements, and nongovernmental actors, and the readings will be drawn from various disciplines such as political science, sociology, history, anthropology and law.

Syllabi are available to current LSA students. IMPORTANT: These syllabi are provided to give students a general idea about the courses, as offered by LSA departments and programs in prior academic terms. The syllabi do not necessarily reflect the assignments, sequence of course materials, and/or course expectations that the faculty and departments/programs have for these same courses in the current and/or future terms.